Nearly four-fifths of landlords favour raising the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard.
A survey conducted by the Social Market Foundation think tank found that 79% of residential landlords believe they should be subject to stricter energy efficiency regulations. Private sector landlords are in fact more supportive of raising the MEES to grade C than the general population, with only 11% opposed to such a move.
At present, the MEES is set to an E, which means that landlords are allowed to lease their properties if it gets an E rating on energy efficiency. The private rented sector is the worst performing tenure for energy efficiency in the UK.
The SMF said the results suggested that “the government’s recent U-turn was counterproductive”.
In September, Rishi Sunak scrapped plans to require all landlords to upgrade their properties to at least EPC C by 2028, citing the need to protect tenants from unfair rent hikes due to the cost of renovations. However, as the SMF has already highlighted, private renters in England and Wales are on track to waste £1.1bn – around £220 per household – on energy that leaks out of their walls and windows.
The SMF said landlords had expressed frustration at the uncertainty created by the government’s “perceived indecisiveness”, and were worried that the goalposts might be moved once more.
Others were upset at having spent substantial sums of money on improving their houses, only to discover that was unnecessary.
The SMF said more needed to be done to ensure take-up of existing support. At present, there are multiple programmes, such as ECO4 and the Great British Insulation Scheme, for which some landlords are eligible, but the SMF found that just over a fifth of landlords remain unaware of any schemes.
Niamh O Regan, researcher at Social Market Foundation, said: “British homes are on a dismal trajectory when it comes to improving energy efficiency, and failing to improve the private rented sector is losing an easy win.
“Recent government actions seem to suggest that renters can either have energy-efficient homes or affordable rents – but this is a false logic. Poor energy efficiency is currently costing them millions. Instead of trying to understand landlords and how they can be motivated to better insulate their properties, the government would rather kick the can down the road, pushing us further and further from greener, healthier and more net-zero-friendly homes.”
To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews
